Replying to Inquiries about God and Faith

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By Faith We Understand…

The first example the writer of the the letter to the Hebrews gives is creation. The author declares,

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Hebrews 11:3).

Creation is an obvious starting point for faith because of the impossibility of creation’s observation. Only God was present and created everything that came into being. No one saw Him do it. The author also wanted to insure that he included all existence within the realm of faith and that faith has its roots in history and God’s activity in the real world. Consequently, faith excludes myth, legend, some sort of leap, feeling, mysticism, and all that is seen

Is creation not in what we see? Are we then to exclude creation as evidence for the unseen God? No. It is one thing to accept creation as evidence for the Creator. It is an entirely another thing to place faith in this evidence. Acknowledgement of the Creator does not save anyone. Along with such an acknowledgement must come faith in the Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s special revelation, Mediator, and the sole object of faith for salvation. Creation is not the object of faith and means of our understanding of God or Redeemer in Christ.

When God created man and woman and placed them in Eden, He spoke directly to them and gave them direction for living and relating to Him in the form of specific commands. His word guided them. In their innocent state, they understood that God created all things, including them. He told them so, and they believed Him. He also gave Adam the task to give names to the different animals He created. When God gave Adam a spouse, one like himself as to his humanity, but different from him as to his form, he also named her, “She shall be called woman” (Genesis 2:23).

When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they lost their innocence and with it alienation from God that passed through them to their offspring and their children’s offspring through all subsequent generations. Eventually, the understanding that God created the world’s and humanity became alien as distance from God grew. Humanity’s eyes turned inward and toward creation as the distinction between the Creator and creation blurred. Humanity lost sight of the unseen God, and individuals relied on what they could see. Faith in God eluded them as they turned to the created order for deities. Eventually, certain people rose up and declared that what exists simply popped out of nowhere, always existed, or other gods created them. Their understanding of the material world was that the universe evolved and the visible arose from the visible rather than from the invisible and unseen God.

When some surfaced the possibility of a god, they exclaimed, “What god? Your god or mine? That animal is divine as is that tree and rock. Let us create our gods from them.” Gods multiplied as humanity also created images like himself from wood and stone – the visible creating the visible. Humanity moved such a distance from the unseen God that the destructive forces of his alienation compelled him to shape visible images for his god. Rebellion from God destroyed faith in the Creator and obliterated humanity’s understanding of the source of creation, including all individuals dwelling on the earth.

Other forms of theism arose, such as polytheism, atheism, and all other forms of idolatry arising from the minds of men and women. These forms of theism gave them a new understanding and paradigm of the source of all things. They arose from the visible rather than from the invisible God. The Big Bang eventually replaced God and spread a materialistic philosophy and religion throughout the earth. That is, the visible created the visible. Many individuals begin to understand God as an unseen entity as an unknown (agnosticism). They then claimed, “We cannot trust that anything unseen acted as the source of the material world.”

Individuals begin relying on observation and the senses behind such observation according to this new theistic paradigm. This new paradigm also made room for a negation called atheism, which leads to a complete denial of any deity. Such form renders a new way of viewing the world about us. Spirituality no longer arises from the unseen God but from whatever individuals make it to be. Men and women are no longer considered living beings from the breath of God but an evolved existence from a primordial state of slime to a state of material consciousness. Then we die and disintegrate back into material chemicals shrouded in dirt and mud.

Such is the hopeless state of humanity’s alienation. It make understanding rudderless, aimlessly wandering across the seas of shifting philosophies transcending the centuries and morphing into greater senses of a lost sense of purpose. It possess no faith except in the finite and corruptible imaginations of individuals. Faith is whatever one wants it to be with no substance or evidence to which the author of the letter of the Hebrews points.

However, that is not the case with those who trust the God of the Bible. We gain knowledge from understanding, and that understanding arises from faith in God. God reveals Himself to us. With that revelation He also imparts understanding. Revelation precedes true knowledge. Knowledge precedes trust (“Nothing But the Gospel: Can We be Saved Through Creation, Other Religions, or HumanPhilosophy?“by Floyd Talbot, Action Faith Books Press, 2014, p. 163). God imparts the understanding that He created all that exists. Additionally, faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ leads us to our Creator and Redeemer as well as eternal life with Him. By faith we understand that He sent His Son into the world to reconcile us back to our Creator and God so that we can have a living relationship with Him now and forever. This is the gospel, the good news that confronts our alienation from others, the world, and God.